County council takes up case for removing trustee at Tuesday's meeting

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Fairfield Township Trustee Taletha Coles gets another chance at Tuesday's meeting of the Tippecanoe County Council to state her case why she should remain in office.

The council will conduct a public hearing at its 8:30 a.m. Tuesday meeting. During the hearing, Coles, as well as the public, may speak for or against removing the trustee from office.

The Fairfield Township Board and the Tippecanoe County Commissioners already have approved resolutions to remove Coles.

The Journal & Courier emailed Coles on Friday asking for comment about the public hearing and whether she or any of her supporters planned to speak on her behalf at Tuesday's hearing. She did not respond.

At the Tippecanoe County Commissioners' public hearing on Aug. 15, no one other than Coles' attorney spoke in favor of her keeping her office. Her attorney only argued that the allegations against Coles must have been committed after July 1, when Indiana's new law took effect.

Coles emailed the commissioners last month before their vote that she did not know she could have people speak on her behalf during the public hearing.

Coles, who was elected to a four-year term in 2018, lost her bid for re-election in May's Democratic Primary Election and will be out of office at the end of the year.

The council's meeting is the third of the four-step process to remove rogue trustees using a new law adopted earlier this year by the Indiana General Assembly.

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Coles and former Wabash Township Trustee Jennifer Teising were the catalyst for the law.

Teising was tossed from office on Jan. 5 after she was convicted of 21 counts of theft of taxpayer money for collecting her salary after she moved out of the township in June 2020. Teising is appealing her conviction and sentence.

Coles currently is under investigation by the Indiana State Police and the Indiana State Board of Accounts for her management of the public's money and assets.

The Fairfield Township Board voted at the end of July to remove Coles, taking the first step of removal. The Tippecanoe County Commissioners voted Aug. 31 to approve a resolution to remove Coles.

Those are the first two steps of the process.

On Tuesday, Tippecanoe County Attorney Doug Masson filed the commissioners' Aug. 31 resolution in Tippecanoe Circuit Court. If the county council adopts the same resolution, Masson said he will file it, and the final decision on the matter goes before Judge Sean Persin.

The seven-member Tippecanoe County Council will have its public hearing on Tuesday, then it must wait at least 10 days before voting on whether to accept that resolution, Masson said.

The council's resolution requires at least five of the council members to approve it in order to move on, Masson said.

Coles is a Democrat.

The council is comprised of five Republicans — Kevin Underwood, Kathy Vernon, John Basham, Jody Hamilton and Barry Richard — and two Democratic members — Ben Murray and Lisa Dullum.

Murray, Hamilton, Vernon and Dullum all are up for re-election this fall.

Masson has reached out to the Indiana Attorney General's office for counsel about how to proceed if the council adopts the resolution.

Does he represent the case against Coles in court, or does an attorney from the attorney general's office? Masson said there is case law to support either argument.

If the council approves the resolution, the matter should be argued in court within a month, Masson said as he described deadlines for citing Coles into court and 20 days for having a hearing.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: County council takes up case for removing trustee at Tuesday's meeting